The Boundaries of Being a Bystander

As a journalist, social justice advocate and general human being, I feel there is a moral obligations for a journalist to their "sources" or whomever they are working to cover. There are situations where journalists, acting as humans, should help someone.

As a journalist, I do feel like I easily detach from the situation, but many aspect of "self-disclosure" that journalists will avoid, I feel are very valid. For instance, over the summer I did a more long-form-esque piece on the only LGBTQ support resource in Hernando County, Fl. When I initially contacted this group that work in a suburban/ semi-rural area the group organizer was very wary of what the Tampa Bay Times might want with their organization.

Members of the Hernando PFLAG chapter

We met over coffee to talk about it and I had to basically prove I was not a threat to the safety of their group. It would be easy to say I was interested in the organization because I am also queer and wanted to explore resources in the area I cover for other queer individuals. But I didn't do that. I didn't want to cross an ethical boundary that I wasn't even sure was there. Over my month and a half (maybe more) of covering them, at some point I did discreetly disclose that I had a "partner." From there, there was a mutual understanding that we understood part of each others stories and I was not just an outsider looking in.

Much of my work in the social justice community has to do with bystander intervention whether it is in bullying, alcohol poisoning, or sexual assault.  While I understand letting events unfold in order to document them, I do not feel any other case, especially in international coverage, should be that different. Why do press credentials give reporters the privilege of being a bystander instead of a solution?

Barbara Sinclair (left) of Brooksville, Fla. marches in the 2012 St.Pete Pride parade with her son, Dean Whitcomb.

How Wedding Media can be Significant for LGBTQ Individuals

Barbara Sinclair of Brooksville, Fla. and son Dean Whitcomb march in the St. Pete Pride parade representing the Hernando County chapter of PFLAG.               Photo by Laura Herrera

Because of Monday’s lecture, I began to think about what is worth telling through multimedia.
After watching the MediaStorm piece, A Thousand More, it is really hard to imagine anything I might work on in J2150 as significant in comparison to the story of 9-year-old Philip Mayer who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy. But I'm working towards it.

I have a guilty pleasure when it comes to anything wedding related. From alternative wedding blogs, like Offbeat Bride, to ‘Say Yes to the Dress,’ I love seeing weddings come together. One of my favorite indulgences is the New York Times’ Vows section.

NYT Vows is basically soon-to-be-wed couples telling the stories of how they found each other. While these are beautifully put together multimedia stories (I wouldn’t expect anything less from the New York Times), I’d categorize them as fairly insignificant. How does a couple getting married compare to the unique story of Philip Mayer?

While it would be unreasonable to ever compare the two, I realized NYT Vows does inadvertently add important social commentary when it comes to sharing the stories of queer* couples.

Most wedding coverage is really hetero-normative. It’s rare, though not unheard of, to see queer couples featured on mainstream wedding shows. NYT Vows is not only more proportional in the population they feature, but because queer couples are able to share their own stories they have the ability to politicize their story as much or as little as they want.

Interestingly enough, every story of a queer couple I have watched has included a political reference. Some talk in-depth about how they never imagined marriage would be a legal reality for them. For others, it is as simple as “Thank you, Governor Cuomo.” This shows the unique cultural environment queer relationships form under in the United States.

To me, that seems pretty significant.


*Queer in this context is used as an umbrella term for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and other identities.